4 Reasons We're Thankful in 2014

In the time honored thanksgiving tradition, Ploughshares Fund is going around the table this week to appreciate our blessings. And this year, we have a lot to be thankful for.

  1. Iran’s first step away from a nuclear weapon. This fall, we watched history unfold in our favor. It began with a phone call and a few Presidential Tweets, and for the first time in over thirty years the US and Iran engaged in a productive discussion over Iran’s nuclear program. Finally, early morning on Sunday, November 23, nations of the P5+1 signed a preliminary deal to freeze the Iranian nuclear program in its place. With three decades of gridlock suddenly freed up, this deal signals that we have built the trust necessary to achieve more progress toward non-proliferation and, eventually, a comprehensive solution.
  2. Smaller nuclear weapons budgets. For the past two years, we’ve been using the national conversation over the federal budget to shrink the nuclear complex. Already, our successful campaign to cut the budget has eliminated a new plutonium bomb plant and significantly shrunk funding for a plutonium fuel facility. These projects would have expanded the nation’s ability to produce nuclear weapons and made plutonium much more widely available around the globe. Stopping them saves money, but most importantly, as each program disappears – without damaging our national security – it becomes ever more difficult for unreconstructed Cold Warriors to argue that we need the nuclear complex as a whole.
  3. The amazing peace and security community we work with. Victories like this can’t happen without our dedicated partners and grantees, who work tirelessly to help us to fulfill our mission and keep us at the forefront of the issue. Our grantees approach the elimination and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons from media, policy, watchdog, and research perspectives. Together, we tackle the issue from every angle. For that, we give our utmost thanks and look forward to continuing to make the world a safer place, together.
  4. You, the people who make our work possible. Thank you for following our work and staying engaged in an issue in which we all have an immense stake. Your interest and commitment keeps us inspired and determined to deliver the best results towards a world without nuclear weapons. We thank you for your continued engagement and financial support, and for your trust that we will achieve what we set out to do. We invite you to celebrate this historic first step alongside with us, because we quite simply could not do what we do without you. We are thankful for you!
Photo by Flower Factor